WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: Can We Make Roads Out of Recycled Plastic?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain

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<v Speaker 1>Stuff Lauren Boglebom here with a classic brain Stuff episode.

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<v Speaker 1>In this one, we talked about a technological process that

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<v Speaker 1>was just getting started back when this episode originally published

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<v Speaker 1>in using recycled plastics in paving and fixing up roads.

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<v Speaker 1>Since then, research and rollout have continued, but here are

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<v Speaker 1>the basics, Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum here. A few

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<v Speaker 1>years ago, engineered Toby McCartney was working in southern India

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<v Speaker 1>with a charity that aided pickers who worked at landfill

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<v Speaker 1>sites harvesting reusable items and selling them. McCartney discovered that

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<v Speaker 1>the plastic waste they retrieved was being put into potholes

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<v Speaker 1>and roads, dused with gasoline and set a fire. When

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<v Speaker 1>the plastic melted into the holes and then hardened, it

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<v Speaker 1>filled them. When McCartney returned to Scotland, he told two

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<v Speaker 1>of his friends about what he had seen. As one

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<v Speaker 1>of them, Gordon Reid, were halls, they decided that it

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<v Speaker 1>would work better to use plastic waste to create a

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<v Speaker 1>new type of materials specifically designed for use in roads.

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<v Speaker 1>After a year of research, they developed a method for

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<v Speaker 1>transforming a mix of industrial and consumer plastic waste into

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<v Speaker 1>pellets of a new material that could replace bitumen, the

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<v Speaker 1>oil based ceiling material that holds asphalt together in roads.

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<v Speaker 1>Since Reid's company, Mcgreeber started operations in April of the

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<v Speaker 1>company's recycled plastic road building material has been used to

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<v Speaker 1>build roadways in places ranging from Australia to Dubai. A

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<v Speaker 1>Reid says, we've got roads on every continent and we've

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<v Speaker 1>had interest from round about fifty countries in the world.

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<v Speaker 1>The company currently is having discussions with the University in

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<v Speaker 1>California about building a test road to demonstrate that its

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<v Speaker 1>plastics are compatible with standards in the United States. According

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<v Speaker 1>to Read, using recycled plastic for road building sounds simple,

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<v Speaker 1>but it actually requires a complex process to create the

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<v Speaker 1>right material. He explained, different plastics do different things to bitterman.

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<v Speaker 1>If you use the wrong mix, it can actually make

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<v Speaker 1>the bittermen more brittle. Micreeper avoids using pet bottles and

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<v Speaker 1>other types of plastic that are easily recycled, and instead

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<v Speaker 1>concentrates on types of waste plastic that might otherwise end

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<v Speaker 1>up buried in the ground. Read declined to go into

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<v Speaker 1>too much detail as so not to reveal too much

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<v Speaker 1>about mcgreeber's proprietary process. In addition to keeping plastic out

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<v Speaker 1>of landfills, the company says it's plastic road materials can

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<v Speaker 1>save about a ton in carbon dioxide output for each

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<v Speaker 1>ton of bnemen that the plastic replaces. The company has

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<v Speaker 1>developed different types of road building plastic four different environments.

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<v Speaker 1>One variety is designed for roads in such places as

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<v Speaker 1>the Middle East, where more tensile strength is needed to

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<v Speaker 1>resist asphalts tendency to deform from heat. Another is designed

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<v Speaker 1>to be more flexible and resist the freeze thaw cycle

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<v Speaker 1>in colder places such as Canada or Scotland. Read says

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<v Speaker 1>mcgreeber's current products are capable of replacing between six and

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<v Speaker 1>twenty of the bitumen in roads, but Read is hopeful

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<v Speaker 1>that within two years improved versions will replace as much

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<v Speaker 1>as a Red says that mcgreeber's plastic road materials physically

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<v Speaker 1>bind with the bittermin which prevents it from breaking loose

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<v Speaker 1>and getting into the environment. In the US, plastic is

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<v Speaker 1>already being used in road maintenance. University of Texas at Arlington,

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<v Speaker 1>civil engineer Professor Sahoda Hussein director of the School Solid

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<v Speaker 1>Waste Institute for Sustainability, has turned to recycled plastic as

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<v Speaker 1>a way to solve the problem of unstable soil on

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<v Speaker 1>highway slopes, which eventually can cause the road surface to

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<v Speaker 1>fail as well. He's developed a technology for taking plastic

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<v Speaker 1>from landfills and then recycling it to manufactured giant pins

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<v Speaker 1>that are inserted into the falling soil to stabilize it.

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<v Speaker 1>Cousin explained via email that the recycled plastic pin quote

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<v Speaker 1>has been successfully tested as a laterally loaded pile in

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<v Speaker 1>different highway slope stabilization projects in the state of Texas, Iowa,

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<v Speaker 1>and Missouri. The Texas Department of Transportation has adopted the

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<v Speaker 1>recycled plastic pin as one of their approved slope stabilization methods.

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<v Speaker 1>It takes just three to four minutes to install each

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<v Speaker 1>of the pins in the ground, so an entire unstable

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<v Speaker 1>area can be shored up in a few days. He said.

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<v Speaker 1>Once the pin is installed into the ground, it is

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<v Speaker 1>less susceptible to degradation, which makes it a long lasting

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<v Speaker 1>solution for slope repair. Each recycled pin utilizes about five

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<v Speaker 1>hundred plastic soda bottles at one of the demonstration sites,

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<v Speaker 1>Hussein's research group put six hundred plastic pins into the ground,

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<v Speaker 1>making use of some three hundred thousand plastic bottles that

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<v Speaker 1>otherwise would have ended up in landfills. Hussaine thinks that

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<v Speaker 1>the Chinese government's recent decision to ban imports of plastic

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<v Speaker 1>waste for recycling could create an opportunity for US entrepreneurs

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<v Speaker 1>to make road materials. China imported seven hundred and seventy

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<v Speaker 1>six thousand metric tons of plastic waste from the United

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<v Speaker 1>States in TwixT Hussein said I am positive more and

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<v Speaker 1>more roads will be constructed using recycled plastics, but he

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<v Speaker 1>does note that more work needs to be done to

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<v Speaker 1>develop new methods, including full scale testing and life cycle

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<v Speaker 1>analysis of roads containing plastic materials m Today's episode is

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<v Speaker 1>based on the article Recycled plastic waste creates Roads on

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<v Speaker 1>how stuff Works dot Com, written by Patrick J. Keiger.

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<v Speaker 1>Brain Stuff is a production of I Heart Radio in

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<v Speaker 1>partnership with how stuff Works dot Com, and it's produced

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